The Talented Ms Urquiola

Patricia Urquiola. If you don’t already know of her, allow us to introduce you to this marvellously talented chica.

Urquiola was born in Oviedo, Spain and now lives and works in Milan. She attended the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Madrid where she graduated in 1989 having done a thesis with Achille Castiglioni. Pretty impressive stuff! It doesn’t stop there..

From 1990 to 1992 she was assistant lecturer on the courses held by Achille Castiglioni and Eugenio Bettinelli both at the Politecnico di Milano university and at the E.N.S.C.I. in Paris. Between 1990 and 1996 she worked for the new product development office of De Padova and with Vico Magistretti, another Design Master.

She has gone on to work with more fabulous people & manufacturers including Alessi, Flos, Cappellini, Cassina, Kartell. She’s also designed for B&B Italia, Cappelini, Bosa, De Vecchi, Fasem, Driade, Kartell, Liv’it, MDF Italia, Kettal, Molteni & C….to name just a few.

Urquiola Product Design

Kettal

Driade

Jelly Vases for Kartell

Comeback Chair for Kartell

A Catalog favourite! The Nub chair, for Andreu World

Tatou for Flos

Caboche for Foscarini

Driade

Urquiola was recently invited to design a collection for baccarat. We were lucky enough to see some of these creations at Design Junction 2012. Truly magical, just seeing them made a Design Week cocktail party overload hangover disappear!

Interior Design

The Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona

Das Stue

And before we go…one last collection cannot be ignored. She has only gone a designed a range of tiles! Thank you Mutina for making this possible. I happen to love tiles and these are no exception; they are just heavenly, incredible, drop dead gorgeous, sublime, exquisite and playful all at once. Forgive me for gushing.

Fancy one last and slightly peculiar fact? She was the inspiration behind the naming of Ulquiorra Cifer, a character on the manga series Bleach. I guess Japan loves her as much as we do.

Ciao Patricia! Adios!